Federal employees begin return-to-work plan

Federal public servants will begin returning to office buildings in Ottawa and Gatineau today, as the federal government begins to phase in a return-to-work plan.

Effective today, federal employees in the core public service who work from home will be required to begin the transition to in-person work, with a requirement to be in the office at least two to three days a week.

Many public servants began working from home full-time when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Last year, departments started making their own decisions about remote and hybrid work.

Treasury Board President Mona Fortier announced the back-to-office plan in mid-December, but federal unions say there aren’t enough workspaces available for federal employees to return. in the office.

“In my view, the workplace is not ready for this,” Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada president Jennifer Carr told CTV National News on Sunday. “I don’t believe Treasury Board has considered the logistics of returning to work.”

Carr says the federal government has made many downsizings in the National Capital Region and “lost a lot of buildings” for federal workers. Carr says some employees returning to Statistics Canada had no offices, and PIPSC has received reports of employees working in cafeterias and canteens.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Canadian Association of Professional Employees published an open letter on Friday, calling on the government to suspend plans to return to power. Unions say the plan endangers members’ health and safety and “doesn’t make sense” from a logistics and productivity perspective.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada announced in December that it would file a complaint with the Federal Public Sector Labor Relations and Employment Board over the government’s return to power plan. Carr told CTV News that PIPSC filed a “freeze complaint” with the labor board on Friday regarding the return-to-work plan.

Federal departments have until the end of March to fully implement the back-to-office plan. Fortier told The Canadian Press last week that any repercussions for public servants not returning to the office would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Some civil servants denounce the lack of direction

Ottawa public servant YuTaek Hwang has been working remotely for nearly three years.

But despite the back-to-office mandate for federal workers taking effect this week, Hwang said his department has not provided any information on when he is expected to return.

“We got a corporate email saying they wanted people to come back two to three times a week, but nothing recent,” he said.

Hwang is not the only official to worry about a lack of guidance on returning, even as others worry about the state of office infrastructure.

Fortier told The Canadian Press in an interview that the purpose of the hybrid working model is to increase collaboration between colleagues. But an internal document suggests there could be issues when employees collaborate with colleagues both in person and virtually.

An October briefing for Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi, which the government proactively leaked online, said some workplaces may not have adequate bandwidth to support the video conference.

“As employees return to the workplace, the level of service they expect may not be available in all Government of Canada buildings,” says the document, which outlines how the minister could respond to questions. on the return to work plan in the House of Commons.

Hwang, who lives in Kanata, said he would prefer to be totally remote, noting that other people whose jobs require in-person collaboration have already been to the office.

“The nature of my job doesn’t require me to see or do anything in person, so I don’t see any merit in spending just over two hours a day in commuting,” Hwang said.

The return to work comes at a difficult time for public transit in the National Capital Region, where the federal government has the majority of its offices.

An ice storm that hit Ottawa on January 4 caused the partial shutdown of the city’s light rail transit system for six days.

Some on social media expressed frustration with the situation and pointed to TLR’s issues as why the back-to-office policy would be a burden on people with long commutes.

Marty Carr, an Ottawa city councilor, has long been an advocate for better public transit and said she wants public servants to have access to a good system.

But she said she knows workers face time and cost issues, including whether it’s worth buying a monthly transit pass when they won’t need to. only be in the office two or three days a week.

“I’m really concerned that more and more federal public servants are making the decision to drive and not use our public transit system,” Carr said.

Still, Pat Scrimgeour, director of transit ridership systems and city planning, said the system was well prepared and had enough capacity to accommodate officials again.

“We’ve been ready and waiting for them to come back for three years now,” Scrimgeour said.

Companies welcome their employees back

Businesses in downtown Ottawa say they will welcome back public service employees with open arms this week.

“We’re thrilled to see more traffic on the streets, meaning pedestrians. It’s nice to see people checking out our store,” Perfect Books owner Jim Sherman said Sunday.

“It’s always great to see a more vibrant community here downtown.”

At Bel Fiore Flowers, Minoo Banaei says it’s good if workers choose to come back to the office.

“It’s very quiet right now and we need our lives to get back to normal.”

As federal employees return to the office, Carr insists the union is not against returning to the office, but questions the implementation and timing of the policy.

“We’re not against returning to the office, we think there are reasons, but it has to be a presence with a purpose,” Carr said on Sunday.

“People need to be able to come together and work as a team, but you can’t do that if you’re working with remote workers. So walking into an office to sit on MS Teams every day, to do exactly the job you do the same way at home, it’s demoralizing for a worker.”

With files from The Canadian Press and Judy Trinh, CTV News